Since the official opening of the\u00a0Lumberjack Mathematics Center<\/a>, first-year students have tackled math\u00a0concepts through adaptive, assessment-based learning modules and hybrid instruction. With continuous assessment that helps fine-tune our first-year mathematics, the center is poised to improve student progress toward a baccalaureate degree.<\/p>\n Yet technology as a finely honed educational tool is only part of the new landscape. The credit-hour system of attaining a degree is quickly\u2014and, perhaps, permanently\u2014shifting toward assessment-based learning.<\/p>\n By early June we anticipate the Higher Learning Commission will green-light\u00a0Personalized Learning<\/a>\u2014a self-paced, competency-based online program using predictive learning analytics to adjust instruction to individual student needs. With a tuition rate set at $2,500 for six months, the program will enable motivated adult students to earn a high-quality degree more efficiently and at a lower cost. Our work on this program was jump-started by a\u00a0$1 million grant from the Gates Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n As we hold to our core values while adapting to new outlooks and approaches, even further innovation is needed to reach students effectively. We must do so while facing up to the realities of modern higher education: dwindling state resources, tuition approaching the market maximum and performance metrics. Volumes are being written about how to approach these challenges, and in particular I recommend William Bowen\u2019s\u00a0Higher Education in the Digital Age<\/a><\/em>\u00a0for your summer reading.<\/p>\n Some projects to address these issues at NAU are well under way. For example, the Faculty Senate has worked over the last year to articulate university-level learning outcomes, enhancing our accountability to students and taxpayers. But we need more ideas and a willingness to take some risks. My own\u00a0Technology Initiative<\/a>\u00a0encourages this approach.\u00a0The initiative has infused funding into technology enhancement of large enrollment multi-section courses from every college\u2014and the first results have shown great promise. We must strive for efficiency, for we simply no longer have the resources to fund multiple designs by multiple instructors for the same course. Instead, our model should be a single design, optimized through the collaboration of faculty colleagues, with specific learning outcomes letting students know what they can expect to gain.<\/p>\n We also need new insights about those outcomes. With federal policy shifting toward, and accreditation agencies slowly embracing, competency-based education, we can expect less emphasis on how students are taught and more on what they learn. This combined with still-in-play performance funding, a national conversation about gainful employment policies and likely financial aid reforms provides additional incentive for the university to get ahead of the game and stay there.<\/p>\n![\"Enrollment](\"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/enrollment.jpg\")
<\/a>We also welcome the fast-paced changes sweeping through higher education. This year brought fundamental shifts that continue to reverberate, and NAU is responsible for launching some of them. Our university has established itself as an early adopter of strategies focused on cost-effective improvement of student learning outcomes through the use of technology and assessment.<\/p>\n![\"retention\"](\"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/retention.jpg\")
<\/a>Such advances in teaching and learning, as well as the introduction of the\u00a0University College<\/a>\u00a0and its\u00a0dedicated faculty and staff, reinforce the university\u2019s strong reputation in student retention, and they produce results. First-year retention is up three percentage points over last year to 76 percent, and our goal remains 85 percent. As we all know, we strive to do more than just bring students in\u2014we also need to keep them here.<\/p>\n![\"Phoenix](\"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/PBC-300x194.jpg\")
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